(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method of extracting a liquid contained in a humid mass and wherein the extraction takes place by pressurizing the mass to cause the liquid to flow out of the mass.
The applications of the system and method of the present invention are quite numerous such as the extraction of juice from fruits or vegetables, or the extraction of liquid contained in grains or in waste of all types, as well as water contained in peat moss. This last application is of particular importance to the present invention when considering that peat moss contains a high percentage of water, which percentage can be as high as 96%.
(b) Description of Prior Art
In order to extract liquid from a humid mass, such as peat moss, various systems and methods have been proposed and are presently being used in order to try and obtain a final product which has a low percentage of liquid therein or an optimum quantity of liquid, as is the case when extracting juices from fruits or vegetables. It is known with many existing systems to use a thermal drawing method whereby to obtain a dry final product. However, such methods are quite expensive due to their high energy consumption thereby augmenting the cost of obtaining the final product. Because of these high costs, the producers utilize systems which are mainly mechanical whereby to continuously extract liquids from such humid mass. These mechanical means comprise centrifugal systems, piston press systems, screw presses, roll presses and converging conveyor presses. All of these systems, however, have major disadvantages, either at their level of construction, utilization, or maintenance due to their particular configuration, as is the case in a converging conveyor press which often cannot permit the passage of a large particle which may be contained in the mass thereby affecting the functioning of the system or resulting in a product at the output of the system having a non-uniform density. Furthermore, presently known systems are fairly large in construction and occupy a large space particularly those systems having long liquid extraction conduits through which the humid mass must travel. One reason for the long conduit is that it is necessary to subject the humid mass to a long travel time in order to remove liquid therefrom.